norty303 Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 I've got a pair of Futurelight FY-200's (a sort of Martin Wizard ripoff) and I want the barrels to contra-rotate. Unfortunately its not as simple as reversing the DMX channel on one as the channel is setup as follows: 0-3 stop4-126 rotate forward with increasing speed127-128 stop129-256 rotate backward with increasing speed So any attempt to have them mirror simply ends up with one going forward slow and the other backward fast. At one point they do the same speed before going out the other way! So what I want to do is reverse the polarity on one motor so its physically reversed. Does any one know which pair of wires it might be, or how I can test to find out? Many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekij Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 It depends, stepper motors are complicated beasts that have more than one winding and can be connected to in more than one way. Have you the unit apart? How many wires do you see going to the motor? Are you sure it's a stepper (and not a big servo motor)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 I'd look in the manual for an alternative setting by dip switch or board link first. Motors and their control boards are very specific as to what they will and will not do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maeterlinck Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Have I missed something? Won't setting Light A to DMX4 and Light B DMX129 have them rotating in different directions at roughly the same speed? It's identical mehod to that of say the rotation attribute of a Martin Mac... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norty303 Posted May 31, 2007 Author Share Posted May 31, 2007 Have you the unit apart? How many wires do you see going to the motor? Are you sure it's a stepper (and not a big servo motor)? To be honest I couldn't tell you the difference, but this has got 6 wires going to it. I'd look in the manual for an alternative setting by dip switch or board link first. They do seem to give a reverse option on their scanners and other units, but not on this one, believe me I've looked! :P Have I missed something? Won't setting Light A to DMX4 and Light B DMX129 have them rotating in different directions at roughly the same speed? It's identical mehod to that of say the rotation attribute of a Martin Mac... It will indeed, however when I'm busking on MagicQ I like to be able to select the group of heads and whack an effect on the attribute at the same values for both. having to select each head individually and set the values (whilst doing the maths) is not what I'm looking for. Having one motor go one way, and the other one the other way is the simplest solution for me as its done once and then I don't have to worry about it. It just works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedd Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Stepper motors are indeed complicated beasts, I certainly wouldn't try reversing their direction. This may be of help; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepper_motor You are looking at a unipolar stepper motor. I would hazard a guess and say you could reverse the order of the 4 coil feeds as they leave the driver boards. It IS NOT a case of reversing the polarity and the thing running in the oposite direction unfortunately. I would rather put the 2 on seperate channels on your desk, then link them in a submaster at their relevant intensities. Alternatively if your desk is clever enough, you could reverse one of the faders so the 2 tie together. Either way, the motor tweak is not the easy way out. It would be interesting to see how the DMX card talks to the stepper driver. It must at some point say "go forward" or "go backward". If this was a case of a logic 1 on one pin or another, these could be swapped, but that'd be a case for a logic probe, a circuit diagram and a fair bit of time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norty303 Posted June 1, 2007 Author Share Posted June 1, 2007 Thanks for the wiki link, it's explained a lot, especially why its not straight forward!! The lights are on completely separate channels and I suppose I could add an offst to one of them to the tune of 128, however it only works in one direction. As soon as I go over 128 on the first, the second is maxed at 256. Going to have to have a think about some sort of clever implementation on the controller I think. I use Chamsys MagicQ PC if anyone's got any tips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Can you use weird dimmer curves? PCs are generally more flexible than "proper" consoles in this respect, I dont know MagicQ, but in PCStage I can edit the dimmer curve as a table of values (rather than as a graphical thing), and convert each byte level individually, so no matter how weird the translation, it could be done. Maybe MagicQ does something similar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Allen Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 You could make a short adaptor cable to reverse the stepper motor rotation so you do not damage the pcb. This site http://wwwhomes.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ih/doc/stepper/others/ shows you how to identify the type of stepper motor and in this case the two common and four coil windings. Look for sites that salvage stepper motors for robotics etc for useful data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Surely the obvious way to do this is by using palettes? Magic-Q supports palettes, so you can make a few of them with each having Unit A spinning in the opposite direction to Unit B, at a few 'commonly used' speeds. If it can do timed 'sneak' palette activations, then it can be busked that way. On a Congo, you'd put the palettes on Direct Selects, type a number, and press the button - it'll fade to the palette in the time you typed. I don't know how to do this on Magic Q though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewR Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 On MagicQ the easyest method would be to use the execute page. It allows you to record what are essentially cues that can be activated by one touch.. as well as putting groups/colours/beam palettes on one page. Anything basically on the one page, very handy for busking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norty303 Posted June 1, 2007 Author Share Posted June 1, 2007 Is that what they refer to as views in the manual? I've always thought I should look into that a bit further but never gotten round to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvi675 Posted June 4, 2007 Share Posted June 4, 2007 On MagicQ the easyest method would be to use the execute page.You can only use the Execute window if you have a wing/module attached, or are using a MagicQ console. Surely the obvious way to do this is by using palettes?To solve this problem with software, rather than a hardware modification, palettes are indeed the easiest option. If it can do timed 'sneak' palette activations, then it can be busked that way.Simply record the palette into the position window (ie set up the 'look', hit RECORD and choose a blank palette). To play this palette back you can then simply click on it from the position window. To apply the palette with time, type the number of seconds you want the palette to fade in by, eg 3, then select the palette. Anything you apply will then be in the programmer, which, unless set to do otherwise, will over-ride anything running on a cue stack. To remove the effect from the programmer hit the CLEAR key. To clear the programmer with time rather than snap straight out of it use the same method as applying a palette with time (eg 3, CLEAR for a 3s fade out). Hope this helps! Best regards, Matt LemonChamSys Ltd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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